Maria read and liked Kemper's review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1):

"I’ve been hearing a lot about how good the Swedish mystery writers are, and if this book is any indication, I’m moving to Stockholm and learning the language because I want to get close to the source.

I’m usually wary when the hype...more I’ve been hearing a lot about how good the Swedish mystery writers are, and if this book is any indication, I’m moving to Stockholm and learning the language because I want to get close to the source.

I’m usually wary when the hype around a book reaches huge proportions and this novel has been a worldwide phenomenon even before I started seeing it all over the bookstores here in America. But this is one example of when the furor is justified.

There are two main characters. Mikael Blomkvist, a veteran financial reporter, and Lisbeth Salander, an anti-social punk with a part-time job as a researcher at a security firm.

When the book begins, Blomkvist has just lost a libel case where he had written about criminal wrong doing by a prominent industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerström. With his reputation in ruins and the magazine he co-owns on the brink of collapse, Blomkvist is summoned to Hedeby Island by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of a wealthy family.

Henrik wants to commission Blomkvist to write a family history, but that’s just a cover story. Henrik’s niece, Harriet, vanished while on Hedeby Island in the early 1960s during a day when the island was cut off from the mainland due to a massive traffic accident on its only bridge. It's the ultimate locked room (or locked island) mystery. Over 30 years of investigation have convinced Henrik that Harriet was murdered, very possibly by someone in the Vanger family, and he wants Blomkvist to comb through the massive amount of material he’s collected and see if he can find anything new about the case.

Blomkvist is hesitant, but Henrik not only offers to help cover his financial problems due to the libel case and with the failing magazine, he also claims to have evidence that would prove that Wennerström is a criminal and will help clear Blomkvist’s reputation. Blomkvist agrees and moves to Hedeby Island to begin the research.

As this is going on, a parallel story revolving around Lisbeth Salander is also being told. Salander is so anti-social that she can barely function in society and has to endure legal guardianship by the state since it decided that she’s incapable of managing her own life. However, Salander is really a brilliant researcher and computer genius who just can't stand people.

Originally hired by Henrik Vanger to vet Blomkvist, Salander becomes intrigued with Blomkvist’s libel case and begins checking out Wennerström on her own. However, changes in her legal status concerning her guardianship soon present her with severe problems in her own life.

There were several things I loved about this book, and one of them is the leisurely pace it has for the first half. Most of this portion consists of Blomkvist sitting in a cabin on Hedeby Island reading about Harriet while Salander is in a desperate struggle to reassert some independence against her new guardian. The key part of the mystery about Harriet really doesn’t pick up until the second half of the novel, but it didn’t bother me a bit. I was so caught up in the story that I was perfectly happy to let it unfold as slowly as it wanted.

I also loved the characters. Blomkvist is a great reporter and a very decent man, but he can also be selfish and a bit of a shit. The book doesn’t pull any punches in indicating that he isn’t a good father and is a bit too casual in his relationships with women. Salander is unfriendly and lacks any social graces at all so she should be unpleasant to read about. But even before the book engages your sympathy for her due to an extremely bad situation she finds herself in, I couldn’t help but like the damaged girl who has such an anti-authority streak that she refuses to ask for help from the police or lawyers when she has every right and reason to. She’d rather handle her problems herself than engage an authority figure, and she’s got a mean streak.

Another thing I liked is that even though this was written before the worldwide 2008 financial implosion, the author Stieg Larsson, who was a financial reporter in Sweden, uses the subplot about Wennerström to illustrate how he felt that financial reporters were entirely too close to the financial bigwigs and no real investigative reporting was being done. Reading about a guy like Bernie Madoff makes it clear that Larsson was ringing an alarm bell. Too bad no one listened.

Fair warning for those considering reading. The original Swedish title of this book is Men Who Hate Women, and you’ll see why if you read it. Although not overly explicit, there are several segments dealing with rape and sexual assault.

Larsson apparently wrote mysteries as a hobby and had completed three but hadn’t tried to publish them until shortly before his death a few years ago. I’m already bummed that there are only going to be two more of these terrific books by him to read.
(less) "

Maria read and liked Bob's review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1):

"Top notch thriller, with lots going on, all handled very skilfully. Reading it is like watching a master juggler put a dozen balls in the air, keep them moving in complex and ever-changing patterns until finally, one by one, he safely catches each of...more Top notch thriller, with lots going on, all handled very skilfully. Reading it is like watching a master juggler put a dozen balls in the air, keep them moving in complex and ever-changing patterns until finally, one by one, he safely catches each of them with nary a slip.(less) "

Maria read and liked Mark's review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1):

"I finished this book in two days over Labor Day weekend, not unlike the main character in this murder mystery, drinking insane amounts of coffee and obsessively pouring over text until 2 or 4 o'clock in the morning.

I was told this book ha...more I finished this book in two days over Labor Day weekend, not unlike the main character in this murder mystery, drinking insane amounts of coffee and obsessively pouring over text until 2 or 4 o'clock in the morning.

I was told this book had reached DaVinci Code levels of success in Europe, and it's tempting to point out certain parallels - fleeting religious allusions, plucky older male / younger female team, etc. This Scandinavian murder mystery, however, has a darker, more sinister, more unspeakable evil behind it of No-Country-For-Old-Men caliber. I don't want to go into it here, but basically it is not for kids.

The best part is, when it's 1AM and the family tree of suspects you've been crossing out and annotating is finished and illegible, the mystery effectively solved, and yet there's 100 some more pages still to go, you realize that this David Fincher-esque page turner has more to tell than just a good mystery.

It's about so many things at once - violence against women, nature v. nurture, organizational corruption, and most significantly, the transparency of information. Fittingly, where in some thrillers there might be an over-supply of information as to the specs of a murder weapon (so-and-so millimeter double gauge hollow tip point rifle or whatnot), in this novel - where access to information is power - an almost pornographic level of unasked-for detail is given to the kind of Apple computer the maladjusted, but likeable, tattooed hacker character, Salander, uses (an *quote*Apple PowerBook G4/1.0 GHz in an aluminum case with a PowerPC 7451 processor with an AltiVec Velocity Engine, 960 MB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive [...] BlueTooth and built-in CD and DVD burners.*unquote* (ch11)).

Still buzzing from the natural high of tearing through this book, and perhaps the chemical high of the coffee consumed while reading it, I have the strongest urges to read three kinds of books: 1) more of this bleak, but captivating Scandinavian murder mystery genre 2) some William Gibson cyberpunk, maybe Pattern Recognition or if not that, then the exploits of the wheelchair-bound hacker Barbara "Oracle" Gordon in the DC comic book series, Birds of Prey and/or 3) the next books in Larsson's trilogy, still unreleased here and eagerly awaited.

Thank you to the Books on the Nightstand goodreads group for sending me this advance review copy. Check out their podcast.(less) "

Maria read and liked Beth(MN)'s review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1):

"Swedish people are nuts! I realize that’s a bit of a broad generalization and it sounds a bit rude, but I don’t care. Because more often than not, I’m nuts too.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and if you know our state history,...more Swedish people are nuts! I realize that’s a bit of a broad generalization and it sounds a bit rude, but I don’t care. Because more often than not, I’m nuts too.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and if you know our state history, you’re already aware that we were predominantly settled and populated by Swedish (and Norwegian) immigrants. So not only are many Minnesota residents of Scandinavian descent, myself included, a lot of our quirky mannerisms and even our accents are commonly attributed to this influence. I attended a Swedish Lutheran college (which attracted a lot of Swedish exchange students). And one of my oldest and dearest friends is an American by birth but was raised in Sweden and didn’t return to live full-time in the U.S. until she was 18. She’s always found Minnesotans to be a very interesting form of science experiment—what happens when you mix Swedish and American culture anyway?

Taking what I know firsthand of Minnesota culture into consideration, I can only assume that Sweden, aka the motherland, is also a twisted place of dark, dry humor. Some mainstream examples that support this claim would include: Fargo, Drop Dead Gorgeous, A Prairie Home Companion and yes, even Mr. Purple Rain himself, who even though he’s genetically a bit more exotic than a plain old Swede, definitely displays some of the more oddball (but typical) Minnesota traits in his own special way.

The point being, the characters in this book felt oddly familiar to me, quirks and all. I’m actually a bit surprised I loved the book as much as I did because I normally criticize authors for trying to jam too much into one story and this book had a lot going on:

--shady business dealings
--corporate fraud
--murder
--religious fanaticism
--extramarital affairs
--Nazis
--casual sex
--creepy pervs
--violence against women
--money laundering
--sexual sadism
--political proselytizing
--dysfunctional family secrets

And that’s just scraping the surface. Because once Larsson got into it and started digging deeper into the plot and revealing more details, my head started spinning and I had smoke coming out of my ears. I wasn’t expecting to be sucked in so quickly by the plot and am still reeling over the fact that this brick-like book (my copy has nearly 600 pages) went as quickly as it did.

I just reserved the sequel from the library and am also excited at the prospects of a third. I’m also sad that Mr. Larsson passed away. What a talented author—not many could tie so much crazy shit into one story and still have it make sense AND be entertaining.

Although I think whoever decided to change the title when they released this book in English is nuts too. The original Swedish title, Men Who Hate Women, is much more fitting. (less) "